NC State swimming hosted four schools — Arizona State, Duke, the U.S. Military Academy and Virginia Tech — at Greensboro Aquatic Center late last week for a competitive, three-day invitational that included three top-10 teams on the men’s side and four top-20 teams on the women’s side. The No. 7 Wolfpack women totalled 1964 points to claim first overall while the No. 4 NC State men’s squad captured 1806 points to place second behind No. 1 Arizona State.
On the women’s side, the Pack dominated the relay events and collected first-place finishes in the 200-yard freestyle, the 400-yard medley, the 200-yard medley and the 400-yard medley relays. In the 200-yard freestyle relay, graduate student Katherine Berkoff, senior Abby Arens, sophomore Cassie Moses and freshman Miriam Sheehan set a new meet record of 1:27.50, touching the wall 2.2 seconds ahead of the next finishers.
The red-and-white recorded podium finishes in two other events — the 50-yard freestyle and the 100-yard freestyle. In the 50-yard freestyle, the Wolfpack swept the podium. Berkoff took first place and set a new personal best in the event at 21.52 seconds. She was followed by Arens in second and Sheehan in third, punching in at 22.18 and 22.26 seconds, respectively. Berkoff also won the 100-yard freestyle, with freshman Tyler Driscoll taking second place.
The Pack finished over 100 points ahead of second-place Arizona State and best third-place Duke by 500 points. These large margins of victories over talented squads point to a successful 2023-24 season for the red-and-white.
In the men’s competition, Arizona State captured first place in the majority of events, but NC State consistently finished right behind it to solidify a second-place finish that was over 200 points behind the Sun Devils but over 500 points ahead of the No. 8 Hokies, who finished third.
The Wolfpack men totalled three podium finishes in three days of competition. On day two of competition, the Pack notched a second-place finish in the 200-yard medley relay, a second behind a Sun Devils squad that placed second at the NCAA Championship in the event last year. The red-and-white earned an NCAA title in the 200-yard medley relay earlier this year, but had to replace its entire relay squad and essentially start from scratch.
After splitting 20.94 on the backstroke leg of the 200-yard medley relay, redshirt freshman Quintin McCarty went on to steal the show with a first-place finish in the 50-yard freestyle later that day. McCarty’s time of 18.08 seconds broke the previous meet record and missed the pool record by just .05 seconds.
Other notable finishes included senior Owen Lloyd and fifth-year senior Ross Dant’s 1-2 punch in the 1650-yard freestyle, clocking in at 14:41.32 and 14:43.85, respectively.
Next up, select members of the Pack are set to the same pool in Greensboro, North Carolina to compete in the U.S. Open. The event begins on Wednesday, Nov. 29 and runs through Saturday, Dec. 2. Other athletes will travel to Knoxville, Tennessee on Sunday, Dec. 3 to compete in the USA Diving Championships.
